Linda Lamie visits with the Eastern redbud tree at Fort Stewart’s Warriors Walk planted in honor of her son Army Sgt. Gene Lamie, a 3rd Infantry Division soldier who died in an improvised explosive device attack in June 2007 while deployed to Iraq.

As she walked slowly along the sidewalk flanked on each side by two rows of green-leafed trees, Linda Lamie stopped and took a deep breath.

She peered down at the markers — an American flag and banners bearing the colors of the 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team and the 3rd Battalion, 7th Calvary Regiment — that stand next to the thin trunk of the 5-year-old Eastern redbud tree where President Barack Obama stopped during his visit to Fort Stewart in April.

Lamie knelt and her eyes settled on one particular marker — a banner with a bald eagle spreading its wings just above a picture of her son, Army Sgt. Gene Lamie, a 3rd Infanty Division soldier who died while deployed to Iraq in July 2007.

Each month Lamie makes the two-and-a-half hour drive from her home in Homerville to Fort Stewart to walk among the installation’s living memorial to soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division and its attached units who did not survive deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan over the last decade.

She’s an unofficial part of a large team of people at Fort Stewart who are dedicated to keeping Warriors Walk both alive and in condition worthy of honoring soldiers like her son who died fighting with the 3rd ID.

“It’s just such an honor that they built this,” Lamie said. “If you just look at these trees. Every one of these trees just represents so much heartache, but it also represents that somebody remembers — that somebody remembers the sacrifice that these soldiers all made for their country, the sacrifice that Gene made.”

Fort Stewart officials have said they’ve struggled at times to maintain the trees. Eastern redbuds — chosen because their pink-purple flowers, similar in color to the Purple Heart, bloom in March and April about the same time the division’s first soldiers were killed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq — aren’t easy to care for, said Fred Cavedo, the chief of operations and maintenance for Fort Stewart’s department of public works.

“Any living memorial is a lot of work,” he said. “Especially these trees — if it’s too dry they don’t like it; if it’s too wet they don’t like it. The root (systems) are fairly close to the ground, so strong winds can blow them over.”

But, Cavedo said, Fort Stewart is more than dedicated to keeping Warriors Walk up to a high standard.

“It’s a balance between trying to make it live and at the same time giving respect to the solider it represents,” Cavedo said. “That’s what we’re here for. If it wasn’t for (these soldiers) we’d have no reason to be here, so we work very hard to keep them up.”

The installation has a designated contract just for the upkeep of Warriors Walk.

“It’s pretty intense,” Cavedo said. “The contractor comes out and cuts the grass around the trees, maintains the beds around the trees, does the mulch, does some fertilizing, and everything that goes along with caring for the tree. It’s one of the main jobs this contractor does.”

Still, events like Tropical Storm Beryl, that brought strong winds and heavy rains to Fort Stewart over Memorial Day weekend, can cause severe damage to the trees.

“A lot of people came out that weekend,” Cavedo said. “The wind had knocked some trees over, and even though we worked hard to have it looking really good before Memorial Day the storms really hurt it. I know that can be disappointing to them.”

Even those who volunteer to help keep the grove in good shape are disappointed when the weather hurts the trees, said Leonard “Matt” Dillon, a retired Army 1st sergeant who works with Hinesville’s Vietnam Veterans chapter 789 to maintain the American flags at each tree on Warriors Walk.

“A couple of days before Memorial Day we came out and replaced all 441 trees’ flags,” he said. “It’s something we’re very happy to do. Unfortunately, even coming through at least every two weeks, flags — usually its their staffs — get bent and broken.”

Sometimes weather, insects and disease lead to the trees dying, Cavedo said. Dead trees are replaced as quickly as possible. More than 40 trees — that depending on age can range from $250 to $1,000 each — have been replaced.

“These trees are very sensitive,” he said. “You do anything wrong with them and they’re going to get sick or they’re going to die, but we work very hard because they mean so much to the families and friends of the soldiers. And they mean so much to all of us (at Fort Stewart) as well.”

Lamie — who helps decorate and clean the beds of about 70 trees for families that are too far away to visit regularly — said she’s thankful for the people who take care of her son’s tree and all the others.

“It means they don’t forget,” she said. “My son loved the Army, and he died doing what he loved. They won’t forget him. Even when I’m dead and gone and can’t come anymore, some soldier, even a general, even the president will stop at my child’s tree and say, ‘We remember.’”